Generally it sounds very convincing. I did not expect the North Sea to be so suitable. And I would have guessed that an abandoned oil rig would have been better. But ships have gotten a lot larger, and this saves transferring the rocket.
But a year delay due to financing may not be so bad, lets see if any of these rockets can actually fly reliably first.
"RFA was significantly more enthusiastic about the proposal with CCO Jörn Spurmann highlighting the strategic importance of Germany developing its own spaceport."
I think it would have been relevant here to mention RFA's ties with OHB. Both because that company is involved in the building of the launch ship, and because it has experience with the paperwork of exporting satellites.
I don't think these small launchers are suitable for satellite constellations, maybe with the exception of test satellites.
"However, the site's location has been declared a marine protection area, ... allow for 250 days of use per year."
That is still a lot of days. But presumably it should not be the limiting factor, as most of the launch campaign would be spend sailing there and back to pick up new rockets and payloads? Or do they plan to load multiple rockets at once?
I would expect weather and high seas to be more of a factor on the number of launches. That ship seems very open on the front.
Did you know that the volunteer group Copenhagen Suborbitals has launched 5 rockets from a floating platform in the North Sea already?
Generally it sounds very convincing. I did not expect the North Sea to be so suitable. And I would have guessed that an abandoned oil rig would have been better. But ships have gotten a lot larger, and this saves transferring the rocket.
But a year delay due to financing may not be so bad, lets see if any of these rockets can actually fly reliably first.
"RFA was significantly more enthusiastic about the proposal with CCO Jörn Spurmann highlighting the strategic importance of Germany developing its own spaceport."
I think it would have been relevant here to mention RFA's ties with OHB. Both because that company is involved in the building of the launch ship, and because it has experience with the paperwork of exporting satellites.
I don't think these small launchers are suitable for satellite constellations, maybe with the exception of test satellites.
"However, the site's location has been declared a marine protection area, ... allow for 250 days of use per year."
That is still a lot of days. But presumably it should not be the limiting factor, as most of the launch campaign would be spend sailing there and back to pick up new rockets and payloads? Or do they plan to load multiple rockets at once?
I would expect weather and high seas to be more of a factor on the number of launches. That ship seems very open on the front.
Did you know that the volunteer group Copenhagen Suborbitals has launched 5 rockets from a floating platform in the North Sea already?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTg55Ktkn4
https://copenhagensuborbitals.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Suborbitals